Doing my own preparations for AQ40 I visited many rogue sites, forums, and Discords for tips and tricks. Some were good, others assumed you were in a top-performing guild (I’m not, and probably neither are you). So I took what I found and put together these rogue notes for how most of us will experience AQ40.
Your guild’s overall raid strategy is being handled by your raid leader and officers. At the end of the day what they say goes. Not this guide or anyone else on the Internet. Your raid team only works if they act as a team. That said, as a rogue, you’ll find much of the information below works for whatever approach your own guild takes in AQ40.
Rogue Talent Builds for AQ40
The talent Murder is useless in AQ40. The bugs are classified as “other” by the game. So you can move those two points somewhere else to increase your DPS inside AQ40. But you’ll lose even more DPS everywhere else. Including Blackwing Lair and much of the open world.
Sword rogues gain 0.9% DPS in AQ40 by moving points to Improved Poisons. But lose 1.9% DPS in other content.
Whether this is worthwhile or not is up to you. Chances are you have Blackwing Lair on farm status and have for a while. So losing some DPS won’t affect the result of clearing the raid. As you break up your Bloodfang set and lose the apply poisons bonus the DPS loss will lessen.
Dagger rogues gain 0.2% DPS in AQ40 by moving points to Ruthlessness. But lose 1.9% DPS in other content.
As a dagger rogue myself this isn’t worth doing. Any single gear upgrade is more significant than this talent change. That said, if you want to put everything into AQ40 progression then a DPS increase is a DPS increase. And I doubt the DPS loss in Blackwing Lair and elsewhere will change the results of getting stuff dead.
Combat > Seal Fate
Regardless you should stay with combat spec for the start of Phase 5. Seal Fate isn’t viable until you have your Tier 2.5 armor. I don’t believe Seal Fate will end up being competitive unless you can keep world buffs for the whole raid. But we’ll see what the theory crafters say once testing with Tier 2.5 is done.
Rogue Consumables for AQ40
If you don’t usually bring consumables to raid consider starting with AQ40. They really do make a difference, especially when most everyone uses them. They may even be mandatory comes Naxx.
Consumables List
The Usual
- Elixir of the Mongoose or Elixir of Greater Agility
- Juju Power or Elixir of Giants
- Juju Might or Winterfall Firewater
- Smoked Desert Dumplings or Grilled Squid or Blessed Sunfruit
- Instant Poison VI
- Thistle Tea
- Blinding Powder
- Major Healing Potion
- Heavy Runecloth Bandage
- Goblin Sapper Charge (if engineer)
New AQ40 Consumables for Rogues
- Mind-numbing Poison III – Slows down arcane explosion on Skeram
- Greater Nature Protection Potion or Nature Protection Potion
- Elixir of Poison Resistance – Best poison removal if healers are busy
- Greater Shadow Protection Potion – Used for C’Thun
- Whipper Root Tuber – Optional, extra heals for C’Thun (shares CD with Thistle Tea)
- Frost Oil – Optional, only if you have frost proccing weapons for Viscidus
How Much Should I Bring?
That’s a good question. The easy answer is as much as your bags can hold, especially for your first run into AQ40. But it isn’t a good answer.
Here are some things to consider while balancing your haul of consumables:
- There are 9 boss encounters, 3 of which are optional. What are your raid leader’s plans for the first week?
- Much of the trash is tough. Staying buffed between boss fights is helpful.
- Can you afford to use consumables while wiping? Using consumables while learning a fight does help. It gives your team a bit more room to get the boss down. Even using cheaper consumables is better than none. But if you can’t afford them I suggest worrying more about improving your gold situation.
- How long is your raid leader planning to stay in the instance? If your guild has a set end time that’ll help tell you how many hour-long elixirs you’ll want.
- You can start with just Nature Protection Potions. Leave the much more expensive Greater version in the bank your first run. See if you need that extra damage absorption, rather than carry twice the number of stacks.
- Elixir of Poison Resistance is for when your poison removing comrades can’t get to you in time. It may or may not be needed much.
- If you aren’t planning to do C’Thun then Greater Shadow Protection Potion can stay in the bank.
What Am I Bringing To My First AQ40?
- Elixir of Greater Agility x5
- Elixir of the Mongoose x5
- Elixir of Giants x10
- Juju Might x20 (I usually use Winterfall Firewater, but the Juju stacks better and the shorter time is more flexible for wipes)
- Blessed Sunfruit x20
- Grilled Squid x20
- Instant Poison x20
- Mind-numbing Poison x20
- Thistle Tea x20
- Blinding Powder x20
- Major Healing Potion x10
- Heavy Runecloth Bandage x20
- Goblin Sapper Charge x20
- Nature Protection Potion x10
- Elixir of Poison Resistance x10
- Greater Shadow Protection Potion x5 (more if we’re focusing on C’Thun that night)
- Frost Oil x5
All that takes up 23 bag slots. Having both cheap and good buff items gives me flexibility if we run into a fight that is giving us trouble. And at the end of the night if I’m out of consumables I can be sure most of the raid is, too.
Boss Fight Tips
Skeram
- Rogues may be called on to interrupt Arcane Explosion.
- For interrupts always have 25+ energy saved up.
- Use Mind-numbing Poison on both weapons to slow casting.
- If a mind-controlled player is nearby and not crowd controlled then hit them with Blind.
Battleguard Sartura
- Rogues may be called on to stun targets, the stuns allow everyone else to DPS unharmed.
- If stunning do a full 5 combo point Kidney Shot.
- During whirlwind rogues can DPS with Evasion, good for building up stun combo points.
Princess Huhuran
- This is a big nature resistance gear fight. Bring all you have to start.
- Save your cooldowns until the boss is at 30%.
Viscidus
Twin Emperors
- Lots of running around when bosses teleport. Boot speed enchant is nice here.
- Only use 1-2 combo points on SnD. Longer SnD can get wasted when running.
C’thun
- Competing on the DPS meters will wipe the raid. Situational awareness, position, and movement are much, much more important.
- Save Evasion for when you’re in the stomach. If you are alone in the stomach don’t risk your life to do more damage. You can’t solo the tentacles and survive.
C’thun’s stomach